Re: [zfs-discuss] Ssd for zil on a dell 2950

from
[Greg Mason]

Subject:

Re: [zfs-discuss] Ssd for zil on a dell 2950

From:

Greg Mason

Date:

Wed, 19 Aug 2009 18:34:02 -0400

Hi David,

We are using them in our Sun X4540 filers. We are actually using 2 SSDs
per pool, to improve throughput (since the logbias feature isn't in an
official release of OpenSolaris yet). I kind of wish they made an 8G or
16G part, since the 32G capacity is kind of a waste.

We had to go the NewEgg route though. We tried to buy some Sun-branded
disks from Sun, but that's a different story. To summarize, we had to
buy the NewEgg parts to ensure a project stayed on-schedule.

Generally, we've been pretty pleased with them. Occasionally, we've had
an SSD that wasn't behaving well. Looks like you can replace log devices
now though... :) We use the 2.5" to 3.5" SATA adapter from IcyDock, in a
Sun X4540 drive sled. If you can attach a standard sata disk to a Dell
sled, this approach would most likely work for you as well. Only issue
with using the third-party parts is that the involved support
organizations for the software/hardware will make it very clear that
such a configuration is quite unsupported. That said, we've had pretty
good luck with them.